1.4. Step 4: Test

OK, that was easy but how can you check that everything really works? Just type in the following URL at your favourite web browser:

http://localhost

Now you should see the start page of XAMPP containing some links to check the status of the installed software and some small programming examples.

1.5. A matter of security (A MUST READ!)

As mentioned before, XAMPP is not meant for production use but only for developers in a development environment. The way XAMPP is configured is to be open as possible and allowing the developer anything he/she wants. For development environments this is great but in a production environment it could be fatal.

Here a list of missing security in XAMPP:

The MySQL administrator (root) has no password.

The MySQL daemon is accessible via network.

ProFTPD uses the password "lampp" for user "daemon".

PhpMyAdmin is accessible via network.

Examples are accessible via network.

MySQL is running under "mysql".

Apache is running under "daemon".

To fix most of the security weaknesses simply call the following command:

/opt/lampp/lampp security

It starts a small security check and makes your XAMPP installation quite secure. For example this protects the XAMPP demo pages by a username ('lampp') and password combination.

1.6. Advanced start and stop parameters

START AND STOP PARAMETERS

Parameter

Description

start

Starts XAMPP.

stop

Stops XAMPP.

restart

Stops and starts XAMPP.

startapache

Starts only the Apache.

startssl

Starts the Apache SSL support. This command activates the SSL support permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future SSL will stay activated.

startmysql

Starts only the MySQL database.

startftp

Starts the ProFTPD server. Via FTP you can upload files for your web server (user "nobody", password "lampp"). This command activates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay activated.

stopapache

Stops the Apache.

stopssl

Stops the Apache SSL support. This command deactivates the SSL support permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future SSL will stay deactivated.

stopmysql

Stops the MySQL database.

stopftp

Stops the ProFTPD server. This command deactivates the ProFTPD permanently, e.g. if you restarts XAMPP in the future FTP will stay deactivated.

security

Starts a small security check programm.

For example: To start Apache with SSL support simply type in the following command (as root):

1.12. Enable or Disable Mode Rewrite

1.13. Create a symbolic link to htdocs

Create a symbolic link between a directory which you have read and write permissions in with htdocs.

sudo ln -s /home/USERNAME/workspace/project /opt/lampp/htdocs

and enter root password when prompted.

1.14. Create a shortcut link to manager-linux-x64.run

KDE:

kdesu /opt/lampp/manager-linux-x64.run

2. Open Suse Linux standard applications

To run a local test server on Open SuSE Linux 42.2 64-bit edition the following standard applications have to be installed:

MariaDB / MySQL (default database)

php7 and mysql support for php7

Apache2 web server (default webserver)

phpMyAdmin (gui for access to MariaDB / MySQL)

2.1. Step 1: Preparation

Got all the latest security updates?

sudo zypper update

Changing the default localhost folder
Consider to create a user-defined folder for your server document (easier backup, to prevent loss of data in case of a new installation or OS upgrade). By default, apache will operate on the “/srv/www” folder. The documents in this folder will be visible from the URL http://localhost.

For most of the preparation and installation you will need root shell access. Go to a Linux shell and login as the system administrator root:

su

or use

sudo

before each command.

To create a /www folder and a subfolder /www/htdocs for your webserver call this command:

mkdir -p /home/$USER/ www/htdocs

Setting user-defined permissions
If your server documents are in /home/$USER/www/htdocs directory run

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /home/$USER/www/htdocs

to give ownership of the DocumentRoot folder to the user www-data and group www-data.

Then you can add yourself to the group www-data

sudo adduser $USER www-data

Finally, you need to make the DocumentRoot folder writable by owner (www-data user) and to your self (as part of the www-data group):